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- [00:01]
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At Lowe's get up to 35% off select major appliances plus members get free delivery, install and more. When you spend $2,500 on select major appliances, Lowe's we help you Save valid through 225 while supplies last selection varies by location. Excludes Massachusetts, Maryland, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Florida loyalty program. Subject to terms and conditions. Visit lowe's.com terms for details. Subject to change.
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Visit your nearby Lowe's on Colorado street in Kennewick.
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A
Hey, this is US Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull. As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac.
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PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.
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Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services LLC/ housing lender NMLS ID35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply Every year people make the same fitness goal Train harder. But most fail because recovery gets ignored. Especially connective tissue that muscles depend on to grow. Frog fuel was developed by Navy Seals and perfected by a Stanford trained scientist. Delivering 15 grams of nano hydrolyzed collagen protein that digests in just 15 minutes. It's science backed and ready to drink. No mixing, no sugar, no junk this year. Don't just train harder, recover smarter. Go to frogfuel.com that's frogfuel.com Stay unbreakable.
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B
This is quite a wall here. Oh, these are some great photos.
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A
That's Jimmy Carter. And that's me. Uh huh. That's me and Loretta Lynn. How did this come about? She was giving a concert in Birmingham. Carried me backstage to meter.
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B
Look at this suit that you have on. Maybe you've never heard of Bill Baxley, but here in Alabama, he's a big deal.
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A
That's Johnny cash.
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Baxley is 82, slightly balding with silver hair and eyebrows. In the pictures he's showing me on the wall of his office, I see him looking younger, his hair is dark and he's standing with famous musicians and politicians.
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A
That's my daddy swearing me in for my first term.
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Wow. Baxley was elected as Alabama's Attorney General when He was just 28 years old. He later served as lieutenant governor and he's still practicing law today. During his career, Baxley prosecuted hundreds of cases and sent three people to Alabama's death row.
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A
There's Some crimes that are so wrong and so horrible that they only deserve one punishment.
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He's a lifelong defender of the death penalty, a true believer. Like when the US Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty in the 1970s, Baxley worked hard to bring executions back to Alabama. He's that kind of true believer. So it's not surprising that Baxley was skeptical when his son, who's also an attorney, asked his dad to look over a case because he believed an innocent man was on death row.
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A
Over the course of my long career, I've had dozens and dozens of instances where these, I'll call them do Gooders, but they're good people. They take up various causes of people that have been sentenced to death, and they get interested in trying to help them, and they think they're always innocent.
- [03:48]
B
Baxley didn't even glance at the case file until weeks later on an icy winter morning. It was too slippery to walk down the driveway and grab the newspaper. So he picked up the file that his son sent him and began reading about a black man named Taforest Johnson who was sentenced to death for killing a sheriff's deputy.
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A
I mean, mid morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I wouldn't have believed that something like this could have happened.
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B
What was so unbelievable about it?
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A
Everything. Everything. I don't know how the guy got indicted, how they got. I didn't see how the jury convicted him. I would have never believed that that could have happened in Alabama. No question in my mind this guy was not guilty of this crime. And I couldn't, Couldn't comprehend how this could happen.
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B
There's only one other case where Baxley thought the defendants were innocent. And that case is almost years old. So what is it about this case, to Forest's case that convinced Baxley that Alabama is trying to execute an innocent man?
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It's. It's a unique absurdity that I've never seen before. It's too late to give him back all those years he's been on death row, but it's not too late to correct it today and get him out for the future. It's wrong that it's gone this long, but it's still not too late to correct it.
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B
My name is Beth Shelburn. Like Bill Baxley, I was born and raised in Alabama. I grew up about a mile away from where the crime at the center of this story took place. I'm a journalist and writer, and for the last three years, I've been investigating the case that raised rocked Bill Baxley's World. The story begins on a hot July night in 1995. It unfolds in two places at once. The Crown Sterling Suites Hotel and a nightclub that's almost four miles away called T's Place. By the end of the night, one man will be shot dead and two others will encounter someone who will put them at the center of the murder investigation. To Forest Johnson is still on death row and he's running out of time.
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A
Do you hear my manners?
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B
Laughter hides my fears. Sorrow's depths are endless.
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A
In this valley of tears I wanna see a revelation.
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I wanna know who you are.
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A
I'm.
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Reaching out in desperation to the one.
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A
Who'S holding the to the one who's holding the star.
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B
I'm beth shelburn. This is ear witness. Chapter one behind the crown.
- [08:09]
A
Birmingham 911. Yes, ma', am, this is Barry calling from Crown Sterling Suites Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm calling because I've had several guests report what appears out the window to have been two gunshots and people running in the parking lot.
- [08:23]
B
It's 12:55am on July 19, 1995.
- [08:29]
A
Okay, there's 2300 Woodcrest Flight. That is correct. I have security on the premises, which is Chippewa County Police. But I'm calling you because I want to make sure that the Birmingham police arrive, please. All right, we'll get the one out. Thank you very much. All right.
- [08:49]
B
The Crown Sterling Suites Hotel was a nine story building in Birmingham. Today the hotel is in Embassy Suites. Inside the main entrance of the hotel, there's a pale tiled walkway that leads through the lobby. The front desk is to the left, but keep walking past it and you enter a huge atrium, an open space surrounded by windows with an indoor garden of leafy green plants and trees. The tiled walkway leads to a koi pond with a fountain at the center. It's lush and humid inside, but despite all the windows, the feel is dim and moody. Keep walking past the koi pond and there's a short hallway that leads to the hotel's back parking lot. It was here, outside the double doors of the Crown Sterling Suites Hotel where a deputy sheriff was killed. No one saw the murder, but a few people heard gunshots.
- [09:55]
A
I remember hearing popping noises from the distance.
- [10:00]
B
Barry Rushakoff was working at the front desk when he made that 911 call.
- [10:06]
A
When I heard it, I believe that's when I tried to call Officer Hardy on the radio with no response.
- [10:13]
B
Officer William Hardy, who went by Bill, had been a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's office. For 23 years. He was also a security guard at the hotel where he worked the night shift to make extra money. Hardy was 5 foot 10, had a thin mustache and and wore his hair in a jerry curl. He was known to be easygoing and friendly. When Deputy Hardy wasn't making hotel security rounds, Barry usually saw him wearing his brown and tan deputy uniform, sitting at one of the tables in the hotel's atrium, smoking Moore Brand menthol cigarettes and drinking coffee.
- [10:54]
A
You know, when I worked there and when I was working nights it was me, you know, Officer Hardy or whatever, officer on duty and, or we would sometimes have a houseman who is cleaning floors or something but very minimal group and I never felt unsafe.
- [11:10]
B
Barry wasn't the only person to hear the popping noises. A few guests at the hotel also heard gunshots, including Marshall Kelly Cummings, a guest in a fourth floor room directly above the hotel's back exit.
- [11:25]
A
Dude, I can remember it like it was yesterday. Now as far as the details, as.
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B
I worked on this project, I started referring to Cummings as the Keebler cookie guy because in 1995 he worked for Keebler as a truck driver.
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A
When all this went on, I was with Keebler driving one of their step vans, delivering cookies and crackers and stuff.
- [11:46]
B
Cummings was staying at the Crown Sterling for a company training. After the workday was over, he drank a few beers at the hotel bar with some co workers and then he and the other Keebler employee he was rooming with turned in between 10 and 11pm But Cummings was not asleep for long.
- [12:07]
A
I woke up and it was. I kept hearing somebody talk, kind of talk. Argy.
- [12:12]
B
So you heard some voices and it sounded like they were arguing or not.
- [12:16]
A
Really bad, but they were, they were having a conversation. Yeah.
- [12:20]
B
Was it, it was male voices.
- [12:22]
A
Well, they quit arguing and then I didn't hear anything. So I laid back down and it probably wasn't 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 45. I mean I didn't count them. Boom. Small caliber gun. It wasn't a big caliber. And all of a sudden a few seconds later, boom. About the second time I said that was a gun.
- [12:50]
B
He remembers turning to the co worker he was sharing a room with.
- [12:54]
A
I said did you hear that? He says yeah. So I stood up and opened the blind to get my eyes fixed because it was dark.
- [13:02]
B
Then it had the lights Directly beneath his window. Cummings sees a four door car. It's dark copper or light brown with a vinyl top parked facing the hotel's back double doors. He sees a tall person get into the driver's side of the car, close the door and slowly pull away with the headlights off.
- [13:25]
A
And so I called down to the front desk. I said, hey, there's been shots fired out here. Did you hear that? I believe I got a phone call from someone in the room saying they heard gunshots.
- [13:35]
B
So Barry makes that initial 911 call, hangs up and decides to investigate.
- [13:41]
A
I jumped over the counter to walk back, and I was walked back. I saw Officer Hardy's radio.
- [13:48]
B
Barry sees Deputy Hardy's radio on a table in the hotel's atrium. And right next to it, his cigarette still burning in an ashtray. Meanwhile, back on the fourth floor, Marshall Kelly Cummings hangs up the phone with Barry and goes back to the window.
- [14:11]
A
And I kept looking, and I kept looking. Finally my eyes got to where I could see and I looked down. I could see him laying on the ground. I went, oh, no, this ain't good.
- [14:21]
B
Cummings spots a body on the ground and realizes someone has been badly hurt. It's right around this time Barry makes the same terrible discovery.
- [14:32]
A
There's a hallway that wipes the door that went back out to the back parking lot. As I turned the corner to go down that hallway and I looked out the door in the distance, I saw Officer Hardy on the ground. That's when I ran back to the front desk, made an emergency phone call to the police. Yes, ma', am, this is Barry from crowd steeling seats. Hotel again. I have a pit. What appears to be a Jefferson county police officer shot in the back of our building. He is not moving. People in a car drove away and you say, is he in? He's lying on the pavement. I'm a little afraid to go out. Is he in uniform? Yes, he is a Birmingham police officer, Jefferson County. He is a hired nighttime security for us. Hi, do you know if you can find out anything, like if he breathes and how much blood? I'm trying, ma'. Am. My. My problem is I don't know if the people are still out there. Okay, We. We should be there shortly. You said thank you very much. I'm gonna go and try to look at him. Okay, thank you. Jefferson county deputy. This been shot on the back entrance of the hotel Crownstrone Suites. It is one of us and we are. They have got one down. He has been shot and it looks bad. 332. Do we have any information? Do we have anything on a suspect?
- [16:21]
B
After he makes the second 911 call, Barry walks down the hallway to the back parking lot.
- [16:28]
A
And then I went back out To Officer Hardy, he was not in good condition. He did have a wound to his face. He was making a. A gurgling, gasping noise. You know, he was not conscious. I believe I took my jacket off, my uniform jacket off to try to cover him or put under his head or try to comfort him. But fortunately, officers arrived so quickly, and I was removed from that area immediately.
- [16:59]
B
More than a dozen officers from four different agencies arrive at the hotel. One of them is Detective Tony Richardson, who says he'd known Deputy Hardy since he first started working for the Jefferson County Sheriff's office in 1978.
- [17:16]
A
Being black and Bill being black, naturally I noticed him. I was told more than once to get a haircut that, you know, to be a deputy sheriff, you gotta have your hair cut. So the reason I mention that is because from the first day that I ever saw him, his hair was out to here.
- [17:38]
B
Big afro, big Afro.
- [17:41]
A
And he would put on his hat. He wore that hat religiously. Everybody else at the sheriff's office hated those hats. They didn't want to wear them, you know, but he always wore his hat.
- [17:53]
B
Deputy Hardy often wore his traditional broad, brimmed, tan, Smokey the Bear style sheriff's hat. It was later entered as evidence from the crime scene with a bullet hole through the brim.
- [18:07]
A
And he would have it on his head and all that hair would be on the side, would be out here. And I'm like, who is this guy? How can he get away with that? And not only that, he is in the sheriff's office. How can he get away with that? So I was intrigued by him, fascinated by him, but I was scared of him. I was scared to meet him because I thought in my mind, this guy's got to be crazy, you know, to do that and get away with it, he's got to be crazy. I was scared of him. But anyway, when I first met him, I met him and talked to him, he started to feel better about. Well, I started to feel better. We were never just bosom buddies, real close, but we were close and we knew each other.
- [18:55]
B
Tony Richardson and Bill Hardy had been colleagues at the Jefferson County Sheriff's office for 17 years. Richardson remembers the last time he saw Hardy alive.
- [19:08]
A
The last day I saw Bill, my brother and I. My brother worked for the sheriff's office also. And we were standing there smoking, and Bill drove out the alley, and he was pulling up 22nd and he stopped in the road and he started to talk to us. And he said, hey, guys, how y' all doing? Loan me some money. Just you know, stuff like that. And we laughed and talked for a minute, and that was the last time I saw him. And the next time I heard Bill's name was about 2 o' clock in the morning when I got the call saying that he had been shot. At that time, I was what was considered a crimes against persons detective, which meant that I worked homicides. The lieutenant felt like, because it involved a deputy sheriff and, you know, that we needed all the help that we could get, so I got called out.
- [20:03]
B
Did you go to the actual.
- [20:06]
A
Yeah.
- [20:07]
B
What did you encounter when you got there?
- [20:10]
A
Well, by the time I got there, Bill's body was gone.
- [20:17]
B
Paramedics had already lifted Bill Hardy into an ambulance and rushed him to the emergency room of Birmingham's largest hospital. He is gravely injured with two gunshot wounds to his head and jaw. A medical examiner notes a bullet wound to Hardy's finger likely means he raised his hand in a defensive posture when he was shot. Police go to his house to tell his wife, Patricia Diane Hardy, and bring her to the hospital. Jim Woodward, the chief deputy in Jefferson county, also rushes over when he hears that Hardy was shot. What do you remember about the incident?
- [20:59]
A
I got the call that Hardy had been shot, and they told me, it looks very serious. So I got in my car and went down to the hospital. I stood there while they were operating on me, and then I just heard one say, that's it. It's over. We can't do anymore. It's over. We can't save him. He's gone.
- [21:23]
B
What does that feel like when you. You are a career law enforcement officer and one.
- [21:27]
A
Well, it's kind of devastating to you. You know, you get to know these guys, and I knew Hardy. That's a very devastating thing to happen to you.
- [21:40]
B
Deputy Bill Hardy is pronounced dead seven hours after he was shot. The cause of death is two gunshot wounds fired at close range. I wanted to know more about Deputy Hardy, so I wrote to several family members, inviting them to talk. They never responded. And I can only imagine his murder must be one of the hardest things they've ever experienced. But I have learned a few things about Deputy Hardy. He was married to Patricia Diane Hardy. He had two children and four adult stepchildren. Hardy started working as a deputy in 1972. His duties included delivering subpoenas and directing traffic outside the courthouse.
- [22:33]
A
You know, It was rough. It was rough. It's rough right now. It's rough right this minute working homicide. I've worked a bunch, but none of them affected me like the killing of a deputy sheriff. You know, you have a bond with the guys you work with in their uniform. Whether you know them or not, you have a bond. So when I was a deputy sheriff working another deputy sheriff's murder, do you think that was emotional? Yes, it was. Very. And had it been my decision the day we caught the people that did it, let's, let's put them on death throat.
- [23:35]
B
Lead detective Tony Richardson and his team of investigators have no eyewitnesses to the shooting and there's no known motive. A fellow officer has just been shot and they have almost no evidence to go on. At the exact time that Deputy Bill Hardy was shot, Taforest Johnson and his friend are Dragus Ford were four miles away from the crime scene at a downtown Birmingham nightclub called T's Place. But they would soon become the focus of Tony Richardson's investigation.
- [24:26]
A
Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull. And I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull. As athletes, our lives are about having a clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust. So when it came to getting the best mortgage, we chose PennyMac. PennyMac is proud to be the official.
- [24:41]
B
Mortgage provider of Team USA and you.
- [24:44]
A
Learn more at pennymac.com PennyMac Loan Services LLC equal housing lender and MLS ID 3595 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Conditions and restrictions may apply. Every year people make the same fitness goal train harder. But most fail because recovery gets ignored. Especially connective tissue that muscles depend on to grow. Frog fuel was developed by Navy Seals and perfected by a Stanford trained scientist. Delivering 15 grams of nano hydrolyzed collagen protein that digests in just 15 minutes. Its science based on and ready to drink. No mixing, no sugar, no junk this year don't just train harder, recover smarter. Go to frogfuel.com that's frogfuel.com Stay unbreakable every Lenovo is built to let them move. Let them put a chicken on a skateboard please let them scale copy and change it up. Let them make a purple sky with raining soccer balls incoming. Let them launch their vision for to the world. Let them make Powered by Intel Core ultra processors Lenovo gives creatives everything they need. Lenovo.com, let creatives create Lenovo Lenovo.
- [26:06]
B
Just a few hours before Deputy Hardy is shot, our Dragus Ford gets into the passenger side of his 1971 black Monte Carlo. It's an old car and the driver's side door doesn't open so he slides over into the driver's seat, starts the ignition and heads out to pick up his friend Taforest Johnson to go to a club called T's Place. I wasn't able to interview Taforest or Ordregas for this place podcast. The Alabama Department of Corrections doesn't allow people on death row to do interviews with reporters like me. So I was unable to talk to Taforest directly. And ardregas died in 2021. I didn't get a chance to interview him before then. I was able to speak to Ardras mother, Joyce Ford.
- [27:00]
A
That particular night. They said they was going to tease and see. He would go to tees every Tuesday and he have his particular same parking space and everything because he would give them good tips.
- [27:13]
B
Ardras was willing to pay for a good parking space because he was in a wheelchair. When Ardragas was a teenager, a group of men began shooting outside an apartment building he was visiting. He was shot trying to shield his cousin and her baby from gunfire.
- [27:32]
A
My son, when he got shot when he was 15, I had just gotten off from work, I was tired and the phone rang, rang, rang. I didn't answer the phone, you know, and I finally answered it and they stated that he had gotten shot. I need to rush to the emergency room. That was like a dream, you know, you hear about things happening to other people but when it hit home, you know. And then he got spinal cord injury, got shot in the back. Yeah.
- [28:07]
B
And he was paralyzed.
- [28:08]
A
Paralyzed from chest down. T4 they call it. So that was like a nightmare.
- [28:18]
B
In his early 20s, Ardregas outfitted his Monte Carlo with a makeshift system so he could throw his wheelchair in the back and, and drive the car using just his upper body.
- [28:30]
A
He would cut a broom, you know, the broomsticks he would put have one to the brakes, one to the accelerator and he would tape it to the car. He would tape it to it.
- [28:42]
B
So he like retrofitted his car. Yeah, he did drive to.
- [28:47]
A
He didn't buy the regular equipment that he should have used.
- [28:52]
B
Ardragas and Taforest actually came up with this idea together. Here's Taforest's cousin, Antonio Green Dracus was.
- [29:00]
A
I guess that was a pride thing. He didn't want the handicap accessible pedals and stuff in his car. But Tafares come up with this great, this genius idea where they're gonna weld some metal rods to the brake and accelerator pedals so he could use his hands and drive. Well, he get to thinking about this thing and metal Rods welded from the brake pedal or the accelerator. That's not too good of an idea in case you get in an accident. He hate to see dragons impaled through the seat right here. So he goes and buys two brooms out of the little dollar store wherever. And no measurements, no, just nothing precise about it. He just gets the broom and broom brakes them and duct taped the sticks, one to the accelerator pedal and one to the brake pedal. So Dragus could drive his car.
- [29:54]
B
Could he get around well? I mean, did he drive well?
- [29:56]
A
Real well.
- [30:04]
B
It's been a while since Taforest and our Dragis have hung out. Because Taforest had recently gotten out of prison. He was arrested for driving with a suspended license. And as officers patted him down at the city jail, he tossed something into a nearby trash can. Officers reached into the can and found a plastic bag of cocaine. Taforest ended up pleading guilty to drug possession. Taforest served about a year in prison, and by the night of Hardy's murder, he'd been out about three months. Taforest puts on jean shorts and a Tommy Hilfiger blue and white shirt, then gets into the passenger side of Hardragus car and they head downtown. They pull up and park outside T's place, but it's too early to go inside, so they hang out in the parking lot, flirting with some girls who work at the car dealership across the street. DeForest buys a hot dog from a cart on the sidewalk. Regulars start trickling into the club, drinking, dancing and catching up. Inside. There's thumping music, low lighting. It's Tasty Tuesday at Teas Place, which means women get in free.
- [31:22]
A
I used to go to Teas Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
- [31:28]
B
Barbetta Hunt was one of the regulars who was there that night. What was your nickname back then?
- [31:36]
A
Mama Cat.
- [31:38]
B
That's like in the world of nicknames.
- [31:40]
A
That'S the best nickname in the world. My mother, Esther Perkins, and my father, Fred Perkins, they gave me that name when I was born. But that's my name. My name is Mama Cat.
- [31:50]
B
When she was in her early 20s, Mama Cat spent a lot of nights hanging out at T's place.
- [31:56]
A
When you walk into the door, that's my spot right there. It's on the right hand side. Every time I got. That was my spot. I said, I don't move from this spot. I don't walk to the back. I don't walk there.
- [32:08]
B
I stay right there.
- [32:09]
A
Me and my friend Vellanique Tacui Sanders, we was together. We got there before 11 because the club is always free on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday before 11 for women.
- [32:20]
B
This is Vellonique Sanders, nicknamed quesi.
- [32:25]
A
Anything. After 11, it was $5, and me and Barbetta was very cheap, so we tried to make sure we got devil in free because the little money we had. Say we wanted to buy something to eat, and I love to get a chicken plate from there, A chicken breast with some french fries. Oh, my God.
- [32:41]
B
Did you know to Forrest Johnson?
- [32:44]
A
Yes, I did. I knew him from hanging out in the neighborhood in Ansley, and I. Oh, God, my God, I had a crush on him. He was the finest. Yeah.
- [32:54]
B
What do you remember about what he looked like?
- [32:58]
A
He was short, a nice body. Oh, my God. Anyway, he was a ladies man. I will say that. Sweet, always kind. He was just a nice gentleman. Like his mama had raised him really well.
- [33:16]
B
Did you guys ever go out, or did he know that you had a crush on him?
- [33:21]
A
He knew I had a crush on him, but we never went out. No, we would just see each other. I smile, be like, oh, there he is. I'mma get him. Yeah, that's it.
- [33:33]
B
Taforest mostly grew up in Birmingham's Pratt City neighborhood, or Pratt for short.
- [33:40]
A
We grew up together. I mean, closer than just cousins. We were like brothers. Cause we were. Were all pretty much raised right in the same little local community.
- [33:50]
B
While Taforest was growing up, most of his extended family also lived in or near Pratt, including his cousin Antonio Green.
- [33:59]
A
And since we were toddlers, I mean, babies, we were kind of together, took out in this thing. And he was a couple of years younger than I am, so he always kind of held onto my shirt tail and, you know, so I've been closely connected with him for our entire life, pretty much.
- [34:18]
B
Taforest's mom, Donna, was 17 when she had him. And when Taforest was young, she was more like a sister to him than a mother. Donna leaned on her parents and siblings to help take care of Ta Forest. And as Ta Forest got older, she leaned on him to help take care of his little brother.
- [34:38]
A
He started at a very young age, much too young to really be faced with the type of responsibility that he took on. He was at an age where he was still a kid. I'm talking about 11, 12, just hitting them 10 years. And had to take on the responsibility of taking care of his little brother. He had a little brother that he got ready for school, he ironed his clothes. He did, you know. You know, he's always been that caring little dude, you know, and he did that so he had to take on some things during that time. You know, his mom and dad was there, but his dad was a very, very heavy drinker.
- [35:18]
B
Taforist's father, Ronald was an alcoholic and would get violent when he drank, which was every day. This made home life extremely volatile for Tiforest, his younger brother, little Ron, and especially his mother Donna. She eventually left Ronald when Taforest was a teenager and moved in with another man who had an apartment in the Tuxedo projects in Birmingham's Inslee community, also known as the Brickyard.
- [35:48]
A
Oh, it was called the Brickyard.
- [35:51]
B
Vellanique, AKA Quesi, the one who had a crush on Ta Forest, also grew up there.
- [35:58]
A
It was rough out there. You know, my mom had three girls, my aunt had three, and we lived in a five bedroom project with our grandparents. So it was, it was just a bunch of girls in the house. But I mean, you know, I just seen people get killed right in front of me. My cousin got shot in the stomach. You know, a lot of it was rough. You had families there that couldn't afford to eat. You know, kids come to school, you know, wearing the same clothes over and over. It was rough. It was rough growing up in the projects.
- [36:34]
B
Taforest and his little brother moved there when Taforest was 16. When he was 17, Taforest was shot in a drive by shooting and spent three months in the hospital. Taforest's mom told me the bullet is still lodged in his chest. During this period, seven of Taforis friends would be shot and killed. No one was ever prosecuted for any of these crimes. And it was around this time that Taforest dropped out of school. Several family members tell me that at 22 to Forrest was somewhat adrift. He spent his time working on old cars and playing video games. He was having a good time dating different women. He had five children who he loved. But he was also unsettled. He hadn't yet figured out his purpose and he didn't know he was running out of time.
- [37:57]
A
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- [38:13]
B
Mortgage provider of Team USA.
- [38:15]
A
And you learn more at pennymac.com pennymac loan services llc/housing lender nmls id 35953 licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending act, conditions and restrictions may apply. Every year people make the same fitness goal Train harder. But most fail because recovery gets ignored. Especially connective tissue that muscles depend on to grow. Frog fuel was developed by Navy Seals and perfected by a Stanford trained scientist. Delivering 15 grams of nano hydrolyzed collagen protein that digests in just 15 minutes. It's science backed and ready to drink. No mixing, no sugar, no junk this year, don't just train harder, recover smarter. Go to frogfuel.com that's frogfuel.com Stay unbreakable every Lenovo is built to let them move. Let them put a chicken on a skateboard, please let them scale, copy and change it up. Let them make a purple sky with raining soccer balls incoming. Let them launch their vision to the world. Let them make Powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, Lenovo gives creatives everything they need. Lenovo.com, let creatives create Lenovo. Lenovo.
- [39:36]
B
As Taforest and Ardregas wait outside of Tees, Ardregas beeper goes off a few times. The beeps are from a girl he met a few nights before, but he ignores her, hoping to meet someone else inside. Tease Taforest walks toward the club's entrance behind Ardregas and his wheelchair. They're focused on meeting girls and having a good time. They don't know that this night will change their lives. And the people they run into don't know they're about to become alibi witnesses.
- [40:13]
A
It was a little before 11 and we were standing outside and they came up. Tafares was pushing the Drakers.
- [40:20]
B
One of the first people they run into is Kenyara Pickett who is standing near the entrance.
- [40:26]
A
I remember exactly where I was standing right in front of the club when he walked up because I thought I was shot that night out, you know, back in the days it was tlc. They were wearing big clothes back then and I had on some black, some black, big jeans but shorts and had on some black and white re and then I think I had on a button down shirt. My sister, she had just got out the hospital, she had a blood clot and when she got out the hospital, we just went down there, you know, to celebrate that she came home.
- [40:55]
B
Taforest and Ardragas make their way past Kenyara and go into Tease. Mama Cat and Vellonique are already inside, perched at their table right by the front door.
- [41:06]
A
Tavares Johnson, I remember he was pushing a drinker's forward in the wheelchair. They came together. I had Saw Tafaris pushing a Drakers in the club. Cause we always stand at the front by the door so we can be nosy and see everything.
- [41:22]
B
You wanted to see who was coming in and who was leaving with who?
- [41:26]
A
Yes, yes, ma'. Am. About 11 o' clock, I saw Tafar's come in pushing the Dragons in. And I was excited to see him because I hadn't seen him in years because I had just reached got out the military.
- [41:39]
B
Stanley Chandler is also at Tees that night to catch up with friends. He and Taforest knew each other as kids in Pratt.
- [41:47]
A
So we stood there and we talked, you know, about old times, you know, and I mean, we joke, man, and laugh.
- [41:55]
B
Taforest and Ardregis settle in at a table chatting with people who stop by watching the dance floor.
- [42:05]
A
I was sitting on the balcony because when you go around, it's like a little balcony part that you can sit at. And so I seen Drake is in Tafaris when they came in the door because he was pushing them in the wheelchair.
- [42:17]
B
This is Deidre Carter, who is celebrating getting released from the hospital with her sister Kenyara. Deidra was also at T's that night.
- [42:27]
A
And him and my cousin Mona and my sister, all us was just there talking. And, you know, I think Tafaris liked it Mona. So, you know, he was trying to hook up with her, but she wouldn't. No, she would never hook up with him. We used to laugh, talk, joking. Like even we at the club, music playing, we still cracking up, you know, you know, just talking and stuff.
- [42:50]
B
Taforest sips a Long island iced tea and orders our Dragis a brandy and Coke. At one point, DeForest goes back to the bar because Dragas says his drink is too weak and the bartender makes him a new one. They linger at the club into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
- [43:08]
A
When I say we would probably shut the club down, we was there, I know, to probably like they used to close about maybe 1, 2 o'.
- [43:17]
B
Clock.
- [43:18]
A
So we will leave right, right before that. So I know it was like maybe one. I ended up leaving the club roughly about. I'm gonna say around about right at one. And like I said, he was standing across the club, you know, you could see him because, I mean, it wasn't a big, big club, you know. And I just took two do signs up and I left and.
- [43:38]
B
And he was still there.
- [43:40]
A
Yeah, he was still there.
- [43:46]
B
There are at least 10 people who say they saw Taforest and Ardregas at t's Place between 11pm and 1:30am Deputy Bill Hardy was shot right in the middle of that time frame, around 12:50am 4 miles away at the Crown Sterling Suites Hotel. People like Kenyara, Deidre, Stanley, Quesi, Mama Cat all remember that night. Their corroborated statements weave together a shield. That shield should protect Ta Forest and Ardregas from the accusations about to head their way. But it doesn't. The state would arrest Taforest and Ardragas, try them, and seek the death penalty against both of them for Deputy Hardy's murder. For the last three years, I've been trying to figure out how this happened. I've read through thousands of pages of court transcripts and investigative documents. I've done a full audit of all the media coverage and interviewed more than 80 people, including several who were directly involved in this investigation and prosecution, and many who have never spoken publicly about the case. I'm not trying to find the real killer of Deputy Hardy. I'm investigating why that person was never found. One of the first things I tried to unwind how did Taforest Johnson and Ardregas Ford end up at the center of the investigation when they were somewhere else at the time Deputy Hardy was killed? Here's one thing everyone agrees on. After they leave T's place, Taforest and Ardregas pick up two girls in the Monte Carlo. One sits in the back by Ardregas wheelchair. The other one sits back between our Dragis and Taforest in the front and that girl, the one in the front seat. What she tells police will land Taforest and Ardregas right at the center of the investigation.
- [46:13]
A
I'm at the Sheriff's office headquarters along with Yolanda Michelle Chambers. Yolanda is a Black female. She's 15 years of age.
- [46:25]
B
That's next time. Ear Witness is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One. Executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardes and me, Beth Shelburne. The investigative reporting for this series was done by me and Mara McNamara. Producers are Mara McNamara, Hannah Beal and Jackie Pauley. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Britt Spangler is our sound designer. Additional story editing from Marie Sutton. Fact check, help from Katherine Newhan and special thanks to to for Forrest Johnson's legal defense team. You can follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter at Lava for Good. To see behind the scenes content from our investigation, visit lavaforgood.com earwitness.
- [47:41]
A
Every year, people make the same fitness goal Train harder but Most fail because recovery gets ignored, especially connective tissue that muscles depend on to grow. Frog fuel was developed by Navy Seals and perfected by a Stanford trained scientist. Delivering 15 grams of nano hydrolyzed collagen protein that digests in just 15 minutes. It's science backed and ready to drink. No mixing, no sugar, no junk this year. Don't just train harder, recover smarter. Go to frogfuel.com, that's frogfuel.com, stay unbreakable. Every Lenovo is built to let them move. Let them put a chicken on a skateboard, please. Let them scale, copy and change it up. Let them make a purple sky with raining soccer balls incoming. Let them launch their vision to the world. Let them make Powered by Intel Intel Core Ultra processors, Lenovo gives creatives everything they need. Lenovo.com let creatives create. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now. You call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try at mintmobile.
- [48:59]
B
Com switch limited time 50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy.